This year’s Catholic Advocacy Day theme is Serving the Poor, Lifting Up Families. Parishioners from around the state will gather at the state Capitol on April 30, asking lawmakers to support bills that will serve those who need it most.
Participants will start out with a briefing to discuss the meetings with lawmakers that will take place later in the day. The focus will be on four bills that Catholics will discuss with legislators including curbing childhood poverty, protecting education rights of parents and strengthening teacher preparedness.
Senate Bill 298 poverty reduction (Caballero, D – Salinas) would commit the Legislature to a goal of reducing childhood poverty by 50 percent by 2039 and provide a framework of research-backed solutions and sustained investment to achieve it. Efforts to invest in measures to reduce child poverty have been hampered by a lack of sustained focus and a defined, comprehensive plan for addressing the problem.
AB 809 child development programs (Santiago, D – Los Angeles) would spotlight a Title IX protection that would help inform pregnant and parenting students about their rights on college campuses. For instance, a graduate student who chooses to take a leave of absence because she is pregnant or has recently given birth is by law allowed a period consistent with the policies of the postsecondary educational institution, or a period of 12 additional months, whichever period is longer, to prepare for and take preliminary and qualifying examinations. This is vital for parents and parents-to-be to understand their educational options when a child enters their lives.
SB 456 privacy: faith-based organizations (Archuleta, D – Pico Rivera) would provide protections for places of worship or other faith-based organization from the disclosing personal information of volunteers to a third party without a court-issued subpoena, warrant or order. Volunteers are essential to faith-based organizations and should not have to fear that their service could lead to unexpected repercussions.
A budget request for K-12 teachers (Portantino, D – La Canada Flintridge) would allow new teachers an individual tax deduction for professional development expenses as they are completing the requirements for their California teaching credential. California’s growing demand for more teachers is outpacing the supply of qualified and fully prepared educators. As a result, the number of underprepared teachers working in California’s school classrooms has more than doubled in just three years. Such a vital and necessary tax policy would be of substantial benefit for thousands of California teachers and their students annually, with a very modest fiscal effect on state resources.
Full story at California Catholic Conference.
Total waste of time. Has no effect on lawmakers’ decisions. Just a feel-good day for those who go, thinking they’re making a difference. The first bill is laughable. A boondoggle.
Sadly, our Bishops have decided not to give SB 24 priority at Catholic Advocacy Day. Senate Bill SB 24 will require all of our public university student health centers to distribute the Chemical Abortion Pill, killing life up to ten weeks of pregnancy. This is a bill with life-and-death importance, which will also hurt young women for a lifetime. SB 24 has historic national implications, as other states will follow California’s abortion expansion lead. Opposing this abortion bill should be a priority for all people of goodwill. The next vote will be in the Senate Education Committee. Not a single Priest, Pastor, or Bishop showed up at the first vote. We pray that our Bishops will make this bill a priority, especially for Catholic…
@Wynette Sills:
Thank you for the information on SB 24, which certainly tells us the skewed priorities of California bishops and priests who value the Marxist “social justice” trope more than the lives of unborn babies.
Hungry in America is a myth: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/hunger-not-think
That’s because this event makes no difference in lawmakers’ votes. It’s just a feel-good day for the participants. The bishops and the lay staff and teens who will go to the capitol don’t want to oppose a bill that they know will be approved by the liberal legislature; they only want to support bills that will pass so they can later tout their “success” and “influence” in newspaper articles when their chosen bills pass the legislature and justify money spent on social justice ministries. They don’t want to oppose a bill that is supported by liberals. They want to come across as good liberals themselves. They don’t care about Catholic morality. They care about virtue signaling their progressive bona fides. It’s FakeChurch.
I am reminded that we are called to be faithful, not successful. Many faithful witnesses to the faith died as failures in the eyes of those who despised them, ignored them, or pitied them. Yet….